Oct 17, Colombo: Democratic National Alliance Galle district parliamentarian Ajith Kumara today filed a petition in Supreme Court appealing to declare the Criminal Procedure Code (Special Provisions) Act not in conformity with the Constitution.

The new act facilitates the police to hold an arrested person for 48 hours in detention for interrogation before producing in court.

Human rights activists criticize the provision and several other articles of the Criminal Procedure Code (Special Provisions) Act.

The petitioner seeks the Supreme Court to rule that two third majority in the parliament and a referendum needed to pass the act.

Attorney General has been named as the respondent of the petition.

Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem tabled the Criminal Procedure Code (Special Provisions) Act in parliament on October 11.

According to the government Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provision) Bill will provide for the extension of detention of persons arrested without a warrant in order to facilitate the conduct of investigations for dispensing with the conduct of the non-summary inquiry in certain cases; to provide for the taking of depositions of witnesses for the prosecution; and to make provisions for matters connected with the arrest or related incidents.

Petitioner Ajith Kumara is an activist of the Frontline Socialist Party, a dissident party of Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).